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What is the Difference Between Cordova and Ionic?

In today’s fast-paced world Tablets, phones, and wearables have never been so important, as people often wonder what really is mobile app development. A mobile app is a process of creating all of the assets, code, and design required to implement a software application and is developed for mobile devices, such as enterprise digital assistants, personal digital assistants or mobile phones. Mobile app development has been steadily growing, in revenues and jobs created.

In this article, we will be discussing the two popular technologies going on in the market for the mobile app development which are Ionic and Cordova.

The combination of these two forms a development platform that is known as hybrid app development. I think you have heard about this word already.

Let’s start with the information on Ionic and Cordova and also will guide you through the difference between the two along with their features.

Understanding Ionic

First, we will understand the meaning of ionic and what roles does it play in the hybrid application development.

It is a free and open source way to provide the required frameworks used in the app development with the help of CSS, HTML, Java etc.

It is an arrangement of HTML, CSS classes and a library of Javascript modules, which are based on top of Cordova, with AngularJS added in it.

Understanding Cordova

With this, you will get a whole lot of different plugins which you can integrate into your application to fulfill all the requirement which uses the hardware of a device in order to run the application.

Pros Of Using Ionic

It’s free and open source.

It’s having HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in it.

Support Multiple UI Development.

It consists of angular JS with it.

Allows rapid prototyping using its frameworks.

Works on MVC Pattern which is Model View Controller.

It is used for Hybrid Mobile Development which can be run on both Android and iOS.

Pros Of Using Cordova

It has a whole lot of plugins which you can integrate into your application.

Works on JavaScript.

It provides good community support so that you can easily get rid of all the issues you are getting.

Used for the cross-platform application.

It is easy to learn technology so you can grab the things more quickly.

Quickly and effectively app development using it.

Yes, it’s also a free and open source technology.

Cons Of Using Ionic

Sometimes it becomes hard if we want to make an application with high performance as it is currently under development mode and in future, it will provide support to make the high-performance app but for now, it faces some issues while making an app like this.

Talking about game development then this may not be the good technology to be used as it also required some more high-end plugins which are currently not available right now.

Without Cordova, you cannot access any device specific feature in ionic as Cordova gives you the plugins through which you can add the functionality to access those features which use the hardware interface of the device.

Some Major Differences Between Both

Ionic provides frameworks required to use in the app. Whereas Cordova provides plugins required to run the application similar to native applications.

Ionic technology provides the different functions needed to be integrated into the application. Whereas Cordova provides the hardware access ability to the application.

You can make a beautiful and effective design using the Ionic frameworks with the help of HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.

You can even make your own plugin using the Cordova technology in order to access the core features of an app.

Brief Explanation of above Points

Frameworks:

If we talk about ionic framework then we came to know that it plays an important role in the hybrid app development, Due to its related frameworks through which we can make our application much more familiar with the user perspective.

If we talk about the Cordova then through this we can integrate a whole lot of plugins in our application which are further used to add the different features in the application.

Abilities:

With the ionic abilities, We can connect those plugins which are provided by Cordova to access the hardware features of the application, like – Bluetooth, Radio, Audio and Video Recording Feature, Maps etc.

This can be integrated with the application directly using the ionic as a base framework.

UI Development:

Ionic is a popular technology used to create the design related to UI with the help of HTML tags, CSS and JavaScript.

With the help of all these powerful tools, one can make a creative and responsive design. Which will, later on, looks similar to the native application when it comes to the real-life experience.

Hardware Features:

As we know that these days most of the application uses the hardware features in the application itself. For instance – getting the user location to access maps ability, Playing the video in the application using the media player.

Connecting two devices using the Bluetooth feature to share some data.

Everything required some hardware. To do all this, we use Cordova in the application which gives us all the required plugins through which we can add them into the application in order to access all these features.

Combination of Both:

Still not satisfied, There is an additional gift for you. You can even create your own plugin if you want to do more with your application. Cordova gives you the ability to create your own plugin through which you can make impossible things possible. That’s why it’s an amazing combination of two powerful tools which combined to form Hybrid applications.

Conclusion

With this, we come to the end of this tutorial on “What is the Difference Between Cordova and Ionic?”.I hope you will find this article useful to understand the difference between both ionic and Cordova and Why they combined to make an application worth appreciable. I would suggest to give it a try working out on this combination of three languages, and tell us how you find this technology beneficial for your application.
Furthermore, It is developing mobile applications that use native features with web components. Which make it better to call hybrid web development.
However, suggestions or queries are always welcome, so, do write in the comment section.

I am working as an ios developer and having experience in objective c with more then 2 live project.Implementing facebook login, google login, parsing json and soap services, storyboard designing using auto layout.

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